[Job thread] Straight to the (filed) Point

by **Allassanachassanya** on September 28th, 2016, 12:27 am

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6th Fall 516 AV
Inside the Bizarre Bazaar
Half a bell until lunchtime

She hadn't set out that day to find herself a job. It was the kind of job which came about spontaneously. Instead, she had been walking through the Bizarre for the first time. Like most of her reactions to the city, she found herself again bemused with a gaping jaw as she watched Alvads, traders and other folk besides, all navigating through the stalls with ease. The place was full of hidden wonders that made her never want to stop walking- and she had already been exploring there since just after the rise of Syna in the sky.

There had been the food seller who had given her a breakfast of pancakes flavoured like flowers. Merely a bell ago, she'd found herself face to face with a woman dressed only in feathers offering her what she'd assumed to be a drug of some kind or another. And now... Well, now she was stood outside of a miniature stall. It was constructed around a small, wooden cart. Vibrant tent fabric draped over it and was held up with a few poles to construct a tent, accessible via a 'door', or rather a flap in the tent fabric. Ssanya's interest was drawn because laying outside on a display table were a selection of oddments.

Peering closer, the woman picked up a small knife handle, sans knife itself. She inspected it closely, only to find to her delight that it was made not of wood but of bone. She placed it down, and picked up another item. This time, a necklace made of... yes, bone again! She fingered the item carefully, feeling the texture of the bone under her fingers, wondering how the material would respond to magic.

Again, she picked up another item. This one was different. It was an arrow-head, incredibly fine-tipped and sharpened to a point. The woman regarded it carefully before beginning to put it back..-
"How may I help you?"
So engrossed Ssanya had been in looking at the arrow-head that with surprise her hand twitched. To her dismay, her fingers let go of the arrow-head. With a pleasant tinkle, the bone fell on the floor. And of course, the very tip had snapped off.

That was all she needed. "Look, I pay..."
But the stall owner wasn't looking at her. She was looking at the arrow-head, and directing her now angry gaze towards the unfortunate perpetrator. In this instance, Ssanya.
"Look'it! I hope you can fix that, otherwise you're paying fo' it! And dooon't you mind me but that's an expensive piece of kit, y'un lady!"

The snake woman severely doubted it was as expensive as the woman said it was, but she picked up the arrow-head gingerly and put it in her hand. If she was going to charge a lot for it, well, why couldn't she make a new one for her? There was a fragment of bone in her pocket somewhere, she was sure.

"If you don't mind... well, I can fixsss it for you. Make anew." Although her accent was thick, she hoped the woman would be able to understand her. To help her case, she drew from her pockets the aforementioned bone and her carving knife.

534 words.

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by **Allassanachassanya** on September 28th, 2016, 12:20 pm

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A brief flicker of alarm crossed the other woman's face as Ssanya drew her knife. The Dhani didn't register it though, for soon enough the alarm had passed as the stall owner realised what she meant. With heavy doubt, she asked, "So... you can carve something like thar?" It took a while for Ssanya to realise what she was saying, to anyone else the conversation would seem ridiculous as both had heavy accents marring their words.

"Yesss, I carve. Can make anew for you?" Ssanya, really not wanting to have to pay for something which she didn't intend on using, doggedly smiled. Finally, the stall owner begrudgingly nodded. "Look'it though, you ain't sittin' in here with me. Do it over there." She pointed to a bench, and she inclined her head at the strange stall owner. In a way, it wasn't the city itself that confused Ssanya the most, but the people in it. A lot of them were... well, extremely odd.

Idly, she wandered over to the bench the woman had indicated, and sat down. The seat was empty apart from her, so she stretched her legs out before tucking them underneath herself in a cross-legged pose. Now, down to business. Ssanya still had the arrow-head in her hand, but now she placed it down on the bench next to her whilst she drew the bone and the knife from her pocket. She hadn't been quite truthful with the stall owner. She did carve things, but she had never carved an arrow-head before. No matter.

She tested the sharpness of her blade with her thumb, before resting it against the bone. Remembering a time when she'd cut her fingers, she angled the knife away from her to avoid spilling unnecessary blood. Although, if she did cut herself, the blood would belong to Siku of course. She smiled and sent her prayers to the goddess, before concentrating down on her work.

Thankfully the bone she had was already quite arrow-head shaped. All she had to do was make sure she didn't break this one too. She started to gently flake particles of bone off, making it flatter than it's current cylindrical shape. She struggled a bit as the knife cut too deeply into the bone, but she soon extracted it again. Flake, flake, flake...

The going was slow, as she was going as carefully as she could. As she carved, she couldn't help but let her mind wander over to her mother's magic. She wasn't an archer herself, but she wondered whether maledicted arrows could work. She flicked the knife to get rid of some lingering flecks of white as she blew the forming arrow-head. It was now roughly oval shaped, but flat. She checked back over the broken object next to her, completely engrossed in her work. She could see that she needed to add little notches into the edges. To make it sharper. To cut a little groove in the bottom. Gods, it was harder than it looked.

500 words.

OOCWhat the finished object should look like:

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by **Allassanachassanya** on October 30th, 2016, 12:32 pm

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Some people who work do so with something else on the mind. However, this wasn’t the case for Ssanya. Of course, the occasional stray thought would cross her mind, it was very difficult to ease those out. But for the most part, she only thought of what she was doing with her fingers, what the bone was doing, and where she was going next. For that reason, she barely noticed when the stall owner wandered over to where she was sitting and took a glance at her work. It was only when she spoke that Ssanya’s head whipped up and fully registered the curious woman.

”Oh, ar’ was only checkin’ up on ya. To make sure y’knew what yer was doing.” With a twinge of irritation that the snake lady ignored, she smiled up with closed lips and nodded once or twice to show she was doing well, before turning her gaze once more at her work. With a mumbled voice, she said, ”Sssure, I am doing well. Almosst finishhhed.” That seemed to satisfy the woman, who turned away and headed back to her stall, where a customer waited impatiently to be served.

Ssanya squinted, and blew some of the bone dust from the crevices. Taking her knife, she finished off one notch, before turning her attention to the other one. She was working slowly, mostly because she liked to pay attention to the detail. Hurried work usually turned out looking awful, and Ssanya was occasionally somewhat prideful. Today was no exception, and she would feel mortified if what she produced wasn’t to the highest standard she could do, especially as she had caused the breakage to begin with.

She shrewdly looked down at the arrowhead, and scraped away a little bit more bone from the notch. Truth be told, she didn’t even know what those bits were for, having never fired an arrow before. Nevertheless, she tried to copy the original as best as she could. It seemed a fragile, dainty thing, and she half-wondered how something so small could cause so much damage. Then she thought of herself, and the Dhani, and their snake cousins and dismissed the thought promptly. Small things could do damage, easily.

It felt like she was nearing completion, but there was something about it that seemed too easy, or too simple. Whether it was the fact that she hadn’t done much, or whether it was because… she looked down at the arrowhead again, and turned it over. Oh. The other side was not as smooth or anywhere near as completed, and was gnarly and rough. Ssanya ran her thumb over it, and picked up her knife. She knew she needed to be careful, because if she applied too much pressure near the top then the tip might snap off. That had happened on a few occasions before, and it always caused her to get into a foul mood. She also knew that she needed to get each side roughly the same. Although she knew nothing about aerodynamics, she knew roughly that it might throw off the balance if the two sides weren’t equal.

Word count: 520

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by **Allassanachassanya** on October 30th, 2016, 12:33 pm

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She gently shaved off a small portion of bone from the top of the arrowhead, taking extreme care not to snap anything. It was difficult, and her hand trembled ever so slightly as she hovered her knife over where she wanted to cut. She half laughed to herself, wondering why she was taking so much care over something that she wasn’t even going to practice her magic on. Yet, she still knew that the bone belonged to some kind of animal. It seemed only fair that she treated it with kindness and caution.

The arrowhead was now nicely sharp and pointed on the end, but she tested it with her finger nonetheless. Sharp enough to cause a little pain, but not to cause bleeding. Not unless she pressed harder, but she wasn’t going to do that. Again she wondered about the effectiveness of arrowheads, but didn’t linger on the question long before continuing to carve and shape the bone that was now warm to her touch.

The underside of the arrowhead was now beginning to become smoother, something which she was pleased about. She flicked her knife gently over the surface, smoothing the final little pieces away before scrambling in her pocket for some sandpaper. A few ticks later she came to the conclusion she didn’t have any, and sighed briefly. She continued with her knife, but the whole thing would have been easier if she’d had some sandpaper. But it was no matter.

She looked at the edges of the arrowhead, now that the top and underside were completed. The whole thing was rather sleek, but the edges seemed somewhat dull. That was how the original was, after all, but there was something she had on the tip of her tongue that might just make it a little better. What was it… With a silent ‘Aha!’ Ssanya grabbed the arrowhead and her knife more firmly in her hand. She quietly assessed it, and then gave the smallest and most delicate of nicks into the edge of the arrowhead at the most regular intervals she could.

Finally, her groundwork complete, she started to cut into the edge of the arrowhead. Her plan was to cut these notches all along the side of the arrowhead. She had seen weapons similarly serrated in Ahnatep, and truth be told she wondered if it was actually suitable for a projectile. But it was too late now to change, and plus she had the sneaking suspicion that the stall owner wasn’t that clever with weapons anyway.

The notches were not as easy as she might have thought to cut though, so the going was slow as she took her careful time digging the knife in and trying not to fragment the arrowhead. Notch after notch she cut, but because she was going so carefully there were only a few mistakes, where the notches were wonky or where she had cut too deeply and dared not cut any further.

The only thing that was left for her to do now was smooth over any of the notches that had cut into the front or back and make sure the whole thing was as sleek and cutting as possible. She really did need some sandpaper though, so with a slight groan as she shifted her legs out from underneath her, she hopped off the bench and walked towards the woman’s stall.

Word count: 564

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by **Allassanachassanya** on October 30th, 2016, 12:38 pm

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”Hey lady. I need to get sssome ssandpaper. Trusst me I will come back.”
”Huh, if you say so. Lez have a look?” Ssanya walked into the quiet, stifling tent and placed the arrowhead on the palm of her hand. The woman’s eyes opened wide, and then she frowned. ”Say, that’s done ‘ent it?” The snake lady shook her head, but didn’t offer any explanation as to why she thought it wasn’t finished. For a moment, it seemed the stall lady was re-assessing her, and she felt oddly uncomfortable as the woman’s eyes raked over her. However, she seemed satisfied of something, and nodded to dismiss her. With that, Ssanya walked out of the shop and wandered off searching for somewhere to suit her needs.

It was only about five chimes before she found what she was looking for, and quickly paid the man for a length of sandpaper that seemed to be of a decent quality. However, if was far longer before she managed to find the stall where she had been, almost thirty chimes in fact. It was probably wise, she thought, to check in with the woman and let her know she was back again.

She waved her sandpaper around the door of the stall and simply said, ”Back,” before returning to the bench which was apparently her home for the day. Still, she felt better for having had a small walk, and already she felt energised. If she put her mind to it and if she had the materials to hand, she could probably carry on like she was for the rest of the day, but for now she simply folded her legs again and started to smooth the sandpaper over the bone.

It wasn’t long before she had managed to finish, and the arrowhead was finished. She took it carefully between finger and thumb, and walked towards the stall. The owner of said stall was just emerging, and Ssanya walked up to her with a quiet smile. She hoped that the woman would be happy with what she had done. Ssanya was pleased, anyway.

To her happiness, the woman did indeed seem to be pleased with the final result. She took it and the broken one, and compared the two as Ssanya watched on. To her gratification, the stall owner grinned and placed the arrowhead on the table. With a final evaluation which the woman didn’t quite understand, she spoke up.

”I’ve a proposition for ya gal. D’ya want a job here? Y’seem to have a knack for this kinda job.” That was a surprise. Ssanya wasn’t sure what she had been expecting to hear from her, but a job offer wasn’t that. The curiousness of Alvads was indeed very odd. She smiled though, and considered it quickly, before saying, ”Yess, I’d love that.”

”Turn up tomorrow whenever Alvadas lets ya, and I’ll give you somethin’ to do.”

Word count: 483

Total thread word count: 2601

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by **Yisanareysin** on November 11th, 2016, 6:22 pm

The ssssssnake hassss your gradesssss...

Ssanya

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Comments
Alvads are, indeed, very weird XD

Don't forget to delete your post in the grading queue, and if you have any questions or concerns, feel free to PM me about your grade!

Closed [Job thread] Straight to the (filed) Point